


Layers

by VaultOfMelkurMistress



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Doctor Watching, F/M, Fluffy Ending, Holding Each Other, Kissing, Missing the Doctor, Seagulls are Evil, disguises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24437419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VaultOfMelkurMistress/pseuds/VaultOfMelkurMistress
Summary: He watches her as she takes her human pets to the beach, happy and carefree. He hates her. He loves her. He misses her. Just a little one shot of angst that ends with fluffy happiness because the Master deserves to be happy. It starts sad, and by the end they're making up an intergalactic law that gives them Doctor/Master time with no weight of the universe on them.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 72





	Layers

The waves lapping at the shingled beach, the salty air, the sound of seagulls over head - the Master wondered why humans enjoyed the coastline on their ridiculous planet so much. They flocked to it at the slightest hint of a rise in heat, laying about on the sand. He did his share of sunbathing too - but not surrounded by the chattering of humans. Solitary, to the backdrop of a very quiet, very obedient world where he would be guaranteed no interruptions. THAT was how to sunbathe. He didn’t mind the seagulls though - he could sit and watch those fearless birds, taking what they want from foolish humans with aggressive ease. They always made him chuckle. 

He wasn’t there to watch amusing scenes of ice cream and chip stealing by bolshy birds though, as much as he did enjoy the chaos they caused. He had picked up a trace of the Doctor’s TARDIS on his scanner. The fact that his scanner was set to continuously search for the slightest trace of her TARDIS was not the point.

So he sat on the stone wall at a discreet distance, and he watched her.

“Taking the pets out for a walk Doctor?” he said, shaking his head in amusement at the scene of her spotting a patch of sand amidst the shingle and heading for it enthusiastically as the humans wandered about the beach in different directions.

“It’s a miracle she doesn’t lose them more often, it’s getting ridiculous now, how many does she need? I bet they cook for her, maybe that’s what it is. All this pretense about how wonderful humans are, she probably has them cooking.”

He watched in silence as the Doctor became animated, pointing out to the sea and no doubt relating some story of heroism or wonder. They listened attentively, smiling and nodding and asking questions. She would be in her element.

Didn’t know her though did they? Not like _he_ did. No one knew her like he did. She would have been so selective with her truths, sugarcoat the universe and herself with the tales of the beauty of her travels. The way they laughed told him everything - they knew exactly as much as she had told them and she had cherry picked her reality - she loved an audience of humans. 

He hated it sometimes - that carefree rightness that shone from her. Hated it because it baffled him. How could she keep trying like she did, to see the brightness and the goodness in this stupid planet. He wanted to tear it down around her. 

He wouldn’t tear it down out of malice - well, _maybe just a little malice,_ but if he ripped it down until there was nothing left to take her attention from him, perhaps should would notice him then, and be ready to listen. She was lied to, and he wanted to tear the stars from the skies because of that - destroy the universe on her behalf, but she wouldn’t thank him would she? The Doctor was never grateful when he gave her presents.

He could’ve sent her a text - but no, not grand enough of a gesture. She needed to understand how it impacted him too. She would no doubt make it all about her, so she simply had to see him.

For _once_ she had to see him. 

This wasn't the moment, he would need to do it with some pizzazz. Really make an entrance. Not here on an beach, while she kicked sand as she strolled along laughing with the pets. He wondered just how she did that? That sense of light, of happiness - where did she put her pain? He contemplated that perhaps if he brought her pain out for a while he could see where it goes again. He wanted to know that secret - his own pain only consumed him. It didn’t stop, didn't hide away like hers and it slowly, very slowly, over his lifetimes, only tried to eat him alive. 

He didn't even notice he was smiling, the light filling his hearts as her coat became soaked at the bottom when a larger wave crashed in. What kind of idiot wore a long coat to the beach anyway? His idiot. Only his idiot would wear that to the beach.

He contemplated walking across the sand with a disguise on - dropping huge hints that only she would know, then when only the two of them were aware who he is, throw her against the stall selling buckets and spades and kiss her. Would she kiss him back, enjoying their secret? 

Maybe... _maybe._..someday soon. 

All that _effort_ , to create something - he didn’t doubt she would build a sandcastle soon. The way she crouched down at the large patch of sand, digging into it with a stick. All that effort building towers and boats and shaping turrets, just for the water to wash it away again. Fleeting success, momentary satisfaction that comes to nothing. She’d be proud of herself for creating some intricate elaborate sandcastle - the pets admiring it. Then it would reduce to nothing again, become irrelevant, forgotten - her efforts spent. He decided to leave. Yes he felt bitter. He just wanted to be on that beach, just the two of them, creating something together just like they used to. Now though, he was in planning mode, his great secret needed absolute precision to reveal, and she might just be a little annoyed with him too. Bomb on a plane probably ensured that - it was priceless though, the look on her face. He would do it again a hundred times over. It was hilarious!

It would be different...if she built that sandcastle with _him_ of course. It wouldn’t be temporary then, even when the waves crashed in and washed it all away. If they created it together it would still have meant something, still matter even if the elements tore it down. It always did. What they had, had always had - it was enduring, nothing could ever tear them down, not really. 

He was NOT jealous of the time she spent with these pets instead of him. He wasn't. He might kidnap them later, teleport them to some far off world, throw them into a black hole maybe but it had nothing to do with jealously. They could never come close to what he was to her, he knew that - he just hated the distraction they brought sometimes. 

He told himself that he did not need her. That it did not hurt when he saw her display of happiness, running toward the water and back before the waves crashed against her boots. Such happiness in such simple things. 

"I hate her," he muttered through the grin spreading across his face and the chuckle that slipped out as she sat down in the sand, her now soggy coat becoming covered with wet sand. He slipped behind the stone wall separating the sand from the promenade, sitting down in the smooth hard ground, his back against the wall. He focused, his mind opening with expert control - just enough that she would feel a faint hum on the edge of her consciousness. A small promise that she would see him again.

He heard one of the pets talking and he smiled.

"You ok Doc? You look confused?" 

"Yeah...yeah...just thought..never mind. Whose up for ice cream?" she said, quickly shaking off the feeling. The sudden longing in her hearts at the distant echo of a feeling - of a love she feared lost, not something she could explain to her friends when that same man had tried to kill them. They couldn't understand. Only she did. Only the two of them in the entire universe could ever understand what they had.

He pulled back, tightened his barriers firmly and smiled as he stood. 

He grinned all the way to the ice cream booth, resisting the urge to whistle as he drew closer. It always lifted his spirits to know he would see her soon. She would smile warmly, make small talk, be light, be happy, feed the pets sugary sweet ice cream...he could look into her eyes through his perception filter, at least for a little while, without seeing the anger, hurt, and all the sadness that he wanted to reach in and take from her hearts - he had so much already that he had room for hers too. It would just get lost inside him, and she would smile and laugh on the beach more. He took a strange satisfaction in seeing her pain, knowing it still existed because sometimes...it scared him to think he was alone in it. It didn't last long though - as much as he denied it, he loved seeing her happy. He loved her. He loved her with the passion of thousand fiery suns - suns that he himself had set alight. It was complicated - it always had been. Or maybe it hadn't, perhaps the time when it had been simple was so far away that their games had taken over. He had made it clear he was tired of playing - sat and waited patiently for over seventy years for the Doctor to believe him. 

He sighed, shaking his head. He was ridiculous. Where was her care when he cried, facing his truths and dealing with his pain, for all those lonely decades when he tried for her? Yet still, _still_ he wanted to ease hers. 

She spotted the booth, animatedly asking the humans if they wanted ice cream - so very predictable, it was all too easy sometimes, to fool the Doctor.

He opened the door, slipped into his disguise while contemplating adding an ingredient to the pets ice cream that would change their appearances to look exactly like him...and opened the ice cream booth, pulling up the shutter to find her standing there with a big smile, her windswept hair messy, her eyes bright and full of joy.  
  
His hearts rose at the sight of her. He missed her so much. 

He smiled from the security of his mask, his love and need hidden expertly and securely beneath latex and layers, as always. 

“What can I get you love?”

"Four cones with flakes," she said cheerfully. 

He smiled at her, placing three cones in holders and keeping the fourth in his hand. 

"No room - why don't you take those and come back for yours love," he said.

"Back in a minute!" she said, as she held the three cones carefully between both hands. 

He left the booth, walking to the side and leaning back against the wooden booth, her ice cream still in his hand as he watched traipsing back across the shells and stones. 

"Stealing my ice cream?" she said, looking amused.

He chuckled and handed it to her, his fingers lightly skimming against hers as lingered very briefly. 

She blinked, a flash of something familiar shooting through her. 

"Cold out today - bit out of season for ice cream. Doing much business?"

"I just wanna get what I came for," he said, his head back against the booth as he turned and smiled. 

"And did you?" she said, confusion forming in her mind. "Aren't you going to charge for these?"

"Charge? Oh..money, that's a thing. Well...three hundred Peso's sound about right?" he asked, struggling to quickly remember the local earth currency.

"Not from around here are you?" she asked, suddenly feeling a little on guard.

"You don't sound like a local either," he said, his fingers tracing across the bracelet on his wrist.  
  
"I thought I was blending it quite well!" she said. 

He laughed and watched as she licked her ice cream, swirling her tongue to catch the drips escaping onto the cone before they reached her hand. 

She would never realise. She never ever did. If he didn't make a move now, she would walk back to her pets and be gone again. So he held up his arm, the bracelet displaying as his cuff dropped down.

She would be thinking a hundred possibilities and none of them would be him.   
  
"Who are you?" she asked.

"Did you know Doctor?" he asked with a smile. "That ice cream booths are neutral ground? Where friends and enemies and lovers and spouses and everything in between can meet, no questions, no tensions...just be."

"I think you made that up. Perception filter?" she said with a nod at his bracelet. 

"Press it and see," he breathed. 

"Who are you?" she whispered, stepping closer.

"A friend and an enemy...a lover..a spouse..everything in between. I told you Doctor."

She stared at him, hope and fear rising in her hearts as she glanced over her shoulder, content that her friends were all occupied and not looking in her direction. She reached out, tentative at first then grasped his wrist with one hand as her her other hovered over the button. She pressed. 

He grinned as she stared hard at him, the perfect disguise now appearing as the latex mask that it was. He took immense pleasure in grasping the bottom of the mask and pulling it off. He dropped it to the ground and laughed, shaking his head. "Much better, did I ever mention it get's hot inside those things?"

"Master," she whispered.

"Doctor," he said, a smile playing on his lips. "Intergalactic law, neutral ground of an ice cream booth remember?"

"You made that up," she whispered.

"Well can you blame me?"

"Why?"

"I missed you," he said. 

"Don't do that," she said. 

"Do what?" he asked. "Make you get honest?"

"Yes," she said, her eyes closing as tears formed behind them. "I always miss you, you know that."

"Another intergalactic law about the ice cream booth neutral zone is that..." his words were cut off as she flung her arms around him, her mouth crashing against his as she embraced him tightly. 

Every ounce of the tension he didn't realise he was carrying dissipated fast, his arms encircling her as he held her close to him, his hand slipping up to the back of her head, holding her in place as he took ownership of the kiss, deepening immediately. As he pulled back, she felt so relaxed in his hold that she wondered if she would stand upright if he let her go. She didn't need to find out, his arms not moving an inch as he looked into her eyes. 

"My ice cream booth travels...you travel..."

"Be a shame to break intergalactic laws, if we were to keeping being at the same place and the same time..."

"I can arrange that," he said with a grin.

"I require ice cream...a lot," she said, her eyes brimming with tears. 

He leaned forward and kissed her nose.

She laughed and the sound filled their hearts with a light they didn't even realise had left them booth.

"Ditch the pets. Come inside my booth and run," he suggested. 

She rolled her eyes and laughed. "Or, you don't let me go without ice cream for long."

"Count on it," he said. 

"Neutral..no big stuff, no questions..or answers, just us. You and me and ice cream," she said firmly.

"Well, I did hope for kissing at the least.."

She laughed and leaned into his hold, her lips pressing softly against his as she vaguely heard the questioning, stunned voices of her friends in the distance, which she chose to ignore. 

Nothing felt more right than where she stood at that moment - and she resolved to never allow the emptiness of not being in each others arms to be a loss either of them would carry anymore.


End file.
